Commerce.Innovated.: Your Opportunity to Create Payments Solutions

In many
ways, effectively moving money is the foundation of the fintech wave. That’s why Silicon Valley Bank and First Data
team up to offer a four-month
accelerator program that provides hand-picked participants with operational
mentorship and access to our companies’ respective networks. Full program
details and an online application are available atwww.commerceinnovated.com. The deadline to apply for the next class is Oct. 9.

Here’s a
snapshot of how we are working with our current class to improve payments
solutions:

A startup
that lowers healthcare costs? The three leading women behind Apostrophe (whose
staff is 80% female) are doing just that.
Cheryl Kellond, Julia Hutchins and Kathy Keating are all veterans in
tech or healthcare. Apostrophe replaces an employer's existing health plan
administrator. They obtain lower costs from doctors and hospitals by removing
the burden of patient collections. They have been working with 20 Colorado
employers and their 2,000 members for the past year and a half and are now
expanding regionally across the Midwest. During Commerce.Innovated., the team is
developing optimal ways for collecting payments and making payouts while
thinking about issues of compliance, scalability and sustainability.

Leave
it to a hurricane to birth a startup. Co-founders Nevin Shetty and Lizzy
Ellingson first met during Hurricane Sandy as Nevin took refuge with 15 others
at Lizzy’s apartment. Nevin, a financier, and Lizzy, a UX designer, shared a
frustration with the e-commerce experience for home furnishings and decor. As
the name suggests, Blueprint Registry allows users to shop using a digital
floorplan of the home and works with national retailers to form a curated
marketplace. In addition, Blueprint Registry has created a socially acceptable
way for users to ask for cash gifts from family and friends. Blueprint Registry
sits at a unique intersection of e-commerce and fintech. With the help of
Commerce.Innovated., the company is focused on building a robust payments
platform that enables Blueprint Registry to operate smoothly for both the gift
giver and the gift recipient.

Sometimes
startups have a great idea, but don’t know where to start. The founders of
Finix, Richie Serna and Sean Donovan, and much of their top team have lots of
experience in payments, and knew from the start that they wanted to
revolutionize push-payments. By leveraging card and debit rails, Finix is
building a global disbursements network for “pushing” payments directly to
debit, credit and closed-loop gift cards. Richie says, for example, contractors
like his mother, a medical interpreter in Los Angeles, can use such a system to
get paid daily, instead of waiting until the end of the month. At Commerce.Innovated., Finix is working on business
strategy and operational items, including the bank vendor process and working
with other types of partners.

Sarah
Schaaf and her co-founder Thornton Schaaf, know something about the legal
biz. Both from families of lawyers --
Sarah is a member of the CA bar and left Google's legal department to become an
entrepreneur -- they’ve watched hard-working attorneys in small firms struggle
to collect from clients. With co-founder Alex Henry, they've created a platform
for attorneys to automate accounts payable and receivable processes and more
easily facilitate transactions with their clients and legal vendors. No more
printing and mailing invoices, chasing paper checks, waiting months to get paid;
Headnote keeps track of everything along the way. It’s not as simple as it may
seem, however, since the ABA and State Bars have specific regulations around
accounting, collections and transmission of legal fees. During
Commerce.Innovated., the company is working on flow of funds options around ACH,
credit card and international payments.

About the Author

Reetika Grewal is the Head of Payments Strategy and Solutions at Silicon Valley Bank, the bank of the world’s most innovative companies and their investors. Reetika joined the company in 2012 to lead the Payments Strategy team. This team focuses on internal payments strategy and development as well as working collaboratively with clients and partners to help deliver their solutions to market. She leads SVB’s partnership with First Data to run Commerce.Innovated., a startup accelerator. The program is focused on helping early-stage companies innovating across the commerce space.

Reetika sits on the board of directors for the Electronics Transactions Association, the leading trade association for the payments industry, and is also a member of the strategic advisory board for FTV Capital, a leading growth equity investor. She has been recognized as among the most influential women in payments by PaymentsSource from 2015 through 2017.

Prior to SVB, Reetika was at JPMorgan Chase where she worked in the Payments Strategy Group and led strategy and partnerships at Clairmail (later acquired by Monitise). She has also held similar positions at Wells Fargo and Sapient.

Reetika earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and her MBA from Washington University.

Silicon Valley Bank is registered in England and Wales at Alphabeta, 14-18 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1BR, UK under No. FC029579. Silicon Valley Bank is authorised and regulated by the California Department of Business Oversight and the United States Federal Reserve Bank; authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority with number 577295; and subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Details about the extent of our regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority are available from us on request. Silicon Valley Bank is a subsidiary of SVB Financial Group, a Delaware corporation and is an affiliate of SVB Financial Group UK Limited. SVB Financial Group UK Ltd is registered in England and Wales at Alphabeta, 14-18 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1BR, UK under No. 5572575 and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, with reference number 446159. SVB Financial Group and its subsidiary Silicon Valley Bank are members of the Federal Reserve System and Silicon Valley Bank is a member of the FDIC.